Fugitives seek alternatives to Musk-owned Twitter

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, users annoyed by the platform’s new regime have vowed to shift their online presence elsewhere, with the German-owned Mastodon attracting much attention. most mean.

Musk’s first moves were a shock to some. Just a week after taking over the power of Twitter, the owners of SpaceX and Tesla have introduced radical changes by laying off thousands of employees, promising the return of banned users and boosting plan to make people pay for privileged access to the site.

This has led many users to look to migrate to new platforms, even though there are few obvious alternatives at the moment.

Mastodon who is against Twitter

Undefined with general public until recently, Mastodon has seen its popularity explode among Internet users concerned about the direction Musk is taking Twitter.

Created in 2016 by German developer Eugen Rochko, the site presents itself as a “decentralized” social network without ads, where privacy protection is sacrosanct.

“Your ability to communicate online is not the whim of a single commercial company!” Mastodon tweeted when Musk’s deal with Twitter was announced in April.

In fact, Mastodon is like Twitter based on posting small messages, but each new user has to sign up for a server that runs independently and has thousands of messages in it. In theory, users should be able to interact freely on the Mastodon servers, but this can be complicated and unreliable.

On his personal account, Rochko said Mastodon hit more than 1 million monthly active users on Monday with the addition of 1,124 servers and nearly 490,000 new users since October 27, when Musk took over. Twitter.

This is still small compared to Twitter, which had almost 238 million daily active users at the end of June.

Promotion has not been easy for Mastodon, and many new users complain about the platform’s unintuitive interface, highlighting the difficulty of creating an account and its poor response time unlike other websites. executive technology giants.

Content censorship is also a big question mark as it is left to the full discretion of server administrators, some denying others access, disrupting the experience.

Under construction

Other sites eager to welcome fugitives on Twitter still abound development stage.

This is the case with BlueSky, the new project of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, which in late October claimed to have 30,000 people on a waiting list in just 48 hours, or Cohost, promising that user‘personal data will never be sold.

In online discussions, established platforms, such as the microblogging site Tumblr or the audio chat app Clubhouse, have seen a return to popularity.

Several other startups are also gaining attention, including Counter Social and Tribel Social.

Then there are right-wing sites like Gab, Parler or Truth Social, the platform launched by former US president Donald Trump, which has positioned itself as conservative alternatives to Twitter long before Musk took over. manage.

Trump is largely expected to be reinstated on Twitter shortly after the US midterm elections on Tuesday, leaving the fate of the financially challenged Truth Social in limbo.

‘The first day

For now, there’s no indication that these Twitter alternatives will be able to compete, let alone surpass Musk’s new company.

In a tweet published on Monday, he even assured that “the number of Twitter users has increased significantly around the world since the deal was announced,” without providing any figures. .

“And these are very early days,” continued the billionaire businessman. “As Twitter becomes the most trusted source of truth to date, it will be indispensable.”

But it remains to be seen whether the most prominent figures on Twitter (celebs, athletes and politicians) will stay on the site or if they will return on platforms with larger audiences like Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.

© 2022 AFP